Yes, we need a national carrier

A few days ago, I had the privilege of chatting with a friend and colleague, who just came back to the country after a trip abroad. After sharing with me the reason why he embarked on the trip, he took time to express his dissatisfaction that Nigeria has been unable to float a national carrier despite our mantra of being the Giant of Africa.

 He lamented that many opportunities associated with having a national carrier had eluded the nation. To a large extent, I agree with him over his submission because having a national carrier not only confers prestige on the country, it makes travellers coming from outside to feel more comfortable. Given the size of our nation, huge population, mobility of our people and tourist potentials, there are sufficient grounds to argue for a national carrier.

Presently, the country appears to lose so much money to foreign airliners in spite of series of network of routes or the capacity to operate extensively on many lucrative routes. Unfortunately, the limited private airlines that attempt doing so do not seem to have the wherewithal and capacity to fund such extensive foreign operations.

In addition to serving as a platform for conveying passengers to their various destinations, a national carrier remains a vehicle for international relations and trade.

A successfully-run national carrier is capable of changing the debilitating outlook of Nigeria that has been reported to be losing about $2.3 billion on annual capital flights to foreign airlines. Efforts were made recently to resuscitate the defunct Nigeria Airways while a new national carrier is expected to emerge going by the resolve of President Muhammadu Buhari in constituting a 13-member committee, to review the case.

The panel’s terms of reference include reviewing the report of what led to the failure of Nigeria Airways and other private airlines; to consult with international partners on the possibility of setting up the national carrier on public-private partnership basis; and to develop the best model for the airline for Nigeria so that the country could enjoy the benefits inherent in Bilateral Aviation Services Agreements (BASA).

The Nigerian Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, had disclosed that the new national carrier would be private-sector driven, adding that the coming of the airline was not meant to kill the smaller carriers operating in the country of an estimated population of about 175 million people and 22 distressed airports currently being managed by Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.

No doubt, the country had made several attempts at reviving the national carrier. The first was the ugly experiences of operating the defunct Nigeria Airways. This effort showed the inability of the government to successfully run businesses such as airlines in which billions of dollars went down the drain.

Another attempt involved government’s partnership with Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic but which collapsed. Other attempts to float the national carrier, such as ‘Air Nigeria’ and ‘Nigerian Global’, were not successful after spending huge public resources.

Over the years, the aviation sector has been accused of enmeshing in corruption resulting in the placement of internationally- accepted best practices under suspension and leaving many questions unanswered.

These challenges border on the award of concessions, disbursement of intervention funds meant to improve the sector, faulty employment or arbitrary dismissal of personnel, enforcement of rules by regulatory agencies, renovation of facilities and wasteful spending on unproductive items such as buying of armoured luxury cars for top officials in the midst of lack of up-to-date equipment and infrastructure.

Reflecting on the past, the Nigeria Airways had over 30 aircraft in its fleet and by the time it was eventually liquidated in 2003, it barely had three aircraft.The once flourishing business had become a national shame and huge liability, as it was derogatorily called “air waste”. Some of its aircraft were allegedly seized abroad due to indebtedness while its employees were owed cumulative salaries.

It was even reported that at one of the most trying moments in 2002, a delayed Lagosbound flight from New York, the airline was bailed out by a passenger, who had to lend out money just to re-fuel! Factors that led to the collapse of Nigeria Airways have allegedly been blamed on large scale corruption, lack of good business model, rampant disregard for established regulations, indebtedness, undue interference by government officials, internal politics and power tussle. No doubt, having a national carrier has many advantages and demerits.

The disadvantages are basically what we obtain with the involvement of government in business activities – poor performance, inefficiency and waste. On the other hand, the merits include the capability to promote the abundant tourism industry as well as the use of promotional materials in visiting these tourist sites.

In the mood of the nation that urgently calls for the diversification of the monolithic economy, it is expected that a national carrier should be more committed to the promotion of tourism, if reintroduced. As previously mentioned, having a national carrier would make it possible to enjoy the benefits of BASA, which allows international and commercial air transport mechanisms to freely move between territories. Unfortunately, most of the BASA agreements signed by the country seem to favour foreign airlines at the expense of domestic ones.

This should be corrected.

Those genuinely clamouring for a national carrier are impressed with the success stories of continental ones like Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Egypt Air and South African Airways that have all grown to having the reputation of becoming formidable and efficient airlines. Ethiopian Airlines alone currently flies to over 80 international destinations across five continents with over 200 daily flights by operating young and modern aircraft.

To ensure that the nation benefits immensely from its aviation industry, the Federal Government should rather encourage private investment in the running of our airlines by providing the enabling environment in terms of sustainable policies that focus on ensuring that existing airlines operate in a more conducive atmosphere devoid of corruption, poor infrastructural facilities, multiple taxation and expensive aviation fuel.

From the forgoing, the government should empower our indigenous airlines to grow to a point where we can comfortably promote the viable ones among them to emerge as national carriers.

By that way, the government would have truly assumed supervisory role while private hands would be encouraged to run the sector and even do it better.

That way, we should have a sustainable, vibrant, reputable and profitable national carrier that would not be a public burden like the Nigeria Airways.